New Zealand shipping company fined for 2024 ferry grounding

The ferry was eventually refloated. However, Maritime New Zealand later charged KiwiRail with violating the New Zealand Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 due to the company's failure to keep the crew and the passengers safe while on board the ferry during and after the grounding.

A preliminary investigation by the country's Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) revealed that Aratere had a new steering control system installed in four of the five command consoles on the bridge in the months prior to the incident. TAIC said, however, that the system was not installed on the autopilot console, which was part of the original track pilot integrated bridge navigation system by a different manufacturer.

As a result, the ferry had remained under autopilot control in the last few minutes leading to the grounding. Although the crew were able to regain manual steering control, it was too late to prevent the vessel from running aground.